The completion of this building, its dedication to education, and the opening of its doors as a Catholic parochial school are matters of no ordinary significance in this community. By means of the present function we are publicly emphasizing the religious character of the educational work to be undertaken here. Due respect for the opinion of our neighbors and fellow-citizens seems to call for some statement from the standpoint of the Catholic laity in explanation of the reasons which have impelled a comparatively poor congregation to incur this great expense and to assume an obligation of future maintenance which year after year will constitute a very serious and increasing burden. It is indeed a striking event that a congregation, very few of whom have large means, should have erected and equipped such a building, costing over $150,000, and should have pledged itself to support the school and ultimately to discharge the remaining mortgage indebtedness of $50,000. There is unfortunately much misunderstanding and criticism among our fellow-citizens of other denominations in regard to the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church towards the important and far-reaching subject of the education of children in the public schools, and the Catholic point of view is frequently misrepresented. In the first place, it is constantly asserted that Catholics are opposed to the public school system of America. On the contrary, Catholics approve and support the public schools, and willingly vote and pay their share of the taxes necessary for the maintenance of these schools. They believe that the state should provide free common schools for the education of children, so that every American child not only shall have an opportunity of securing a free education but may be compelled to take advantage of the opportunity thus provided. They recognize that in this country it is generally impracticable in the common schools to teach the tenets of religious faiths, because to compel children indiscriminately to study the doctrines of any particular religion in which their parents do not believe would destroy all religious freedom and would be contrary to fundamental rights. They recognize further that to attempt to teach in the public schools the tenets of the Catholic, the Jewish and the numerous Protestant denominations, would be quite impossible and inevitably would lead to religious chaos. They realize that absolute equality or religious freedom can be secured only by making the public schools non-sectarian. Catholics, therefore, favor the maintenance of the system of free common schools; they have heretofore supported and will continue to support the system, although they object to some of the details of management, and they will send and do send their children to these public schools wherever there are no Catholic schools. In fact, fully one-half of the Catholic children of our country are now attending public schools because of the lack of Catholic schools.